Previously, when you migrated content from Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) to Microsoft 365, a user could bring over their Mail, Calendar, and Contact information. While this did help reduce friction for users getting used to the new platform, it did not avoid the burden of re-creating all their email organization rules in Outlook. To address this, we have now added the capability to migrate Gmail filters to Outlook rules as a part of the standard migration offering!
With this feature you can now migrate Mail, Rules, Calendar and Contact data for all users and everyone is opted in by default.
Here are some of the conversions we support:
Gmail filter criteria
|
Gmail filter Criteria |
Criteria Syntax |
Outlook Rule Condition |
|
From: |
From people or public group |
|
|
Except it from people or public group |
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|
Except it from people or public group |
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To: |
me |
Where my name is in the To box |
|
Send to people or public group |
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Except it send to people or public group |
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Except it from people or public group |
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|
Has the words: |
cc:me |
Where my name is in the CC box |
|
word1 or word2 |
With word1 or word2 in the subject or body |
|
|
Doesn't have: |
Word1 or word2 |
Except if the subject or body contains word1 or word2 |
|
cc:me |
Except where my email address is in the cc box |
|
|
Subject: |
Word1 or word2 |
With word1 or word2 in the subject |
|
!word1 AND !word2 |
Except if the subject contains word1 or word2 |
|
|
word1 AND !word2 |
(With word1 in the subject) AND (Except if the word2 contains B) |
|
|
!word2 AND word1 |
(Except if the subject contains word2) AND (With word1 in the subject) |
|
|
Size: |
Greater than number unit |
With a size in a specific range |
|
Has attachment: |
Which has an attachment |
Gmail filter action
|
Gmail filter Action |
Outlook Rule Action |
|
Skip Inbox (Archive it) |
Move it to the Archive folder |
|
Mark as read |
Mark it as read |
|
Apply the label |
Move a copy to the specific folder |
|
Forward it |
Forward it to people or public group |
|
Delete it |
Delete it (Move to Deleted Items folder) |
|
Always mark it as important |
Mark it as important Importance: High |
|
Never mark it as important |
Mark it as important Importance: Medium |
Conversions that are not supported
We do not currently support migrations of Categories from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365.
Additionally, if there are certain filters we are unable to process and convert, we mark these as bad items. And bad items from filters to rules migration do not negatively impact the DCS score of a job since that mechanism is more relevant for identifying data loss for the underlying data set (like Mail, Calendar and Contacts).
How to configure the feature
By default, the feature is enabled when you use New-MigrationBatch for Google Workspace migrations. If, however, you wish to disable the rule migration capability, you can do so by specifying the –SkipRules parameter via PowerShell.
In the screenshot below, you can see that there are now checkboxes for migrating Gmail Filters (to Outlook Rules) – which is checked by default. Simply un-checking the checkbox for Rules will skip migrating those items. Currently you need to do this via the Classic Exchange Admin Center; this change will be incorporated into the Modern Exchange Admin Center in the future.
Note: We do not have a way to reset rules once migrated, as is the case for any other data like Mail, Calendar or Contacts.
Try the feature out and give us feedback in the comments if the conversion was to your liking and what improvements we can make in the future!